1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to wood working equipment. In particular, this invention relates to a combination handguide and measuring tool which can be used with table mounted wood working equipment such as table saws, jointers, planars, routers, etc.
2. Prior Art
In wood working operations such as the ripping, routing or jointing of wood, the operator of the machine uses a saw guard, push stick and other safety type equipment to prevent accidental injuries to fingers, hands and arms when the work piece is being operated on by the machine. In addition, when accurate control of the work piece is deficient, problems may arise, not the least of which can be a diminution in the maintenance of prescribed dimensional tolerances in the work piece. To accomplish both of these desired goals, the traditional push stick, a notched stick which is placed on the work piece, is used to push the work piece through the wood working operation.
Conventional push sticks are well known as shown in, for example, Fine Wood Working, p. 53 (Spring 1977) and Fine Wood Working, p. 12 (January/February 1979).
A common "push stick" is also disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,001,903. The '903 patent discloses a wood working device comprised of a handle having a triangular and eccentrically notched working end provided with a right angle to push wood through the wood working equipment. While this push stick is better than no push stick, it has several inherent deficiencies. For example, the shaft does little to hold the wood securely in place, thus permitting the wood to buck off the flat surface during the wood working operation. In addition, there is no control of the left to right movement of the wood as it passes through the wood working equipment. Further, there is insufficient engagement with the top surface of the wood resulting in the wood "bucking" if hard spots exist in the wood. Finally, there is always the possibility that the push stick will slip, causing the hands of the operator to move toward the cutting edge of the wood working equipment.
Better designed push sticks have a handle and a guidebody for pushing the wood through the wood working equipment. Some of these devices have a replaceable bottom part when the device comes into contact with the wood working equipment. See for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,348,925. Others have openings in the bottom of the push stick through which a saw blade can pass as the push stick is being used. See for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,370,909.
Others employ different methods for pushing the wood through the wood working equipment. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,839,100 which uses a number of rigid stud-type devices which grab the wood and push it through the wood working equipment.
Another type of wood working device fits over the rip fence or rip rail of a table saw and contains an extended notch for pushing wood through a table saw. See U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,603,612, 4,485,711 and 2,410,467.
Thus, there are numerous devices for the pushing of wood through wood working equipment, especially table saws.
In addition, there are many conventional measuring tools for determining distances, degrees and angles, all of which come into use when wood is being altered by wood working equipment. However, none of the devices previously disclosed provide a combination handguide for pushing wood through the wood working equipment and a ,tool for performing a multitude of measuring operations such as: setting the height of the blade of a table saw, setting the angle of the blade of a table saw for a 221/2 degree, 30 degree, 60 degree or 90 degree miter cut, measuring the length or height of the woodpiece determining the center of a shaped woodpiece and the many other measuring operations performed on a daily basis by people in wood working.
Therefore, it is an object of this invention to provide a combination handguide and measuring tool for use with wood working equipment.
It is another object of this invention to provide a combination handguide and measuring tool which will safely and securely push wood through a wood working operation.
It is a still further object of this invention to provide a combination handguide and measuring tool for determining the height of a saw blade and for performing many other measuring operations in wood working.
These and other objects and features of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from a consideration of the following detailed description, drawings and claims. The description along with the accompanying drawings provide a selected example of construction of the device to illustrate the invention.